💌IL #26: Undoing the curse of knowledge
~15 mins reads on curse of knowledge, false memories, & rethinking work hours
Welcome to this week’s issue!
Invested Learner is a FREE weekly newsletter of well-curated pieces to compound how you learn and do things. In each issue, you’ll find:
✅ Mental models & frameworks for learning, unlearning, and relearning
✅ Tools & systems to help you become more productive in learning and building in public
✅ Insightful articles for the curious and lifelong learners
I appreciate it if you can share this with friends and colleagues so we can all learn together👇
When I posted a newsletter milestone with my Facebook friends, my mother-in-law congratulated me but said that she had no idea what it meant.
Which kind of puzzled me. For sure, she's familiar with the terms "newsletter" and "subscribers." She's skilled at using tech tools as a college professor doing distance learning.
Then it hit me, I had the curse of knowledge. I thought I was someone new at this newsletter thing and assumed that my primary skills were common. I was wrong.
The curse of knowledge happens when you underestimate or generalize what other people know about what you know.
It happens when you're always surrounded by people who talk the same language as you. Or when you feel like a newbie in something that you're still learning but not realize that other people are not updated with that field.
I also catch myself doing this in my financial advisory business. I start off conversations as if the other person I'm talking to knows what insurance and investments are. But I'm often wrong.
What's the cure to this curse? Share with concrete language. Tell stories. Have a beginner's mindset.
Here's are 3 tweets that summarize why non-experts/beginners are at the best position to teach beginners:
That’s why it’s also powerful to document your process and progress. It serves as a reminder of how far you’ve gone.
Other links that will compound the way you learn and do things:
🐘 New study finds false memories can be reversed | University of Portsmouth | 🕰 4 minutes
Researchers implanted false memories about the subjects' past and then reversed them. While that sounds a bit silly, this is a reminder to always revisit what we believe about the past.
🍱 The 4-Day Workweek and Other Alternatives to the Standard Weekly Schedule | Natasha Frost | 🕰 6 minutes
Remote work has become the norm because of the pandemic and here are some options you can consider whether you're working for a company or for yourself.
Personally, since my care and career life are slightly blended together, I do a hybrid of 5-hour workday and 7-day workweek.
Side comment: This is one of my favorite Downton Abbey scenes.
I'm very protective of my time blocks as well because that's also how I manage my energy.
Learning in public update:
I invested in an online writing course called Ship30for30! My goal for joining is to sharpen my writing skills, drill down on my niche, and stop overthinking.
For the next 30 days starting tomorrow, I’ll be publishing one atomic essay over at Twitter:
I’ll share with you how it goes!
‘til next week!
Bituin 💫